@ckelsoe/prompt-architect 3.0.2 → 3.2.0

package/skills/prompt-architect/references/frameworks/step-back.md

@@ -1,206 +1,206 @@
-# Step-Back Prompting
-
-## Overview
-
-Step-Back Prompting is a two-step reasoning technique where the model first answers a higher-level "step-back" question that retrieves the underlying principles, concepts, or facts relevant to the original problem — then uses those retrieved principles as context to answer the original question. By abstracting first, the model grounds its reasoning in first principles rather than diving directly into a potentially error-prone specific answer.
-
-**Research basis:** "Take a Step Back: Evoking Reasoning via Abstraction in Large Language Models" (Zheng et al., Google DeepMind, arXiv:2310.06117, ICLR 2024). Demonstrated +7-27% accuracy on MMLU Physics and Chemistry, +27% on TimeQA, +25% on MuSiQue vs. direct prompting.
-
-## Components
-
-### Step 1: The Step-Back Question
-**Purpose:** Reformulate the original question into a higher-level, more abstract question that retrieves the underlying principles or concepts needed.
-
-**Pattern:** Strip away specifics → ask for the general principle/rule/concept.
-
-**Examples:**
-- Original: "What happens to water pressure at 100m depth in salt water?" → Step-back: "What are the physics principles governing fluid pressure?"
-- Original: "How should I structure a React component that fetches user data?" → Step-back: "What are the principles of separation of concerns in React component design?"
-- Original: "Was the Battle of Stalingrad a turning point?" → Step-back: "What factors define a military turning point in a campaign?"
-
-### Step 2: Principle Retrieval
-**Purpose:** Answer the step-back question to retrieve the relevant principles/concepts/facts. This becomes the reasoning context.
-
-### Step 3: Final Answer
-**Purpose:** Use the retrieved principles as context to answer the original specific question.
-
-**Trigger:** "Based on these principles, now answer the original question: [original question]"
-
-## Template Structure
-
-```
-ORIGINAL QUESTION:
-[The specific question you want answered]
-
-STEP-BACK:
-Before answering directly, first answer this higher-level question:
-[Step-back question — the abstract principle/concept behind the original]
-
-PRINCIPLE APPLICATION:
-Using the principles/concepts you just described, now answer the original question:
-[Restate original question]
-```
-
-### Auto Step-Back (Model generates its own step-back question):
-```
-Before answering the following question, first identify the underlying
-principles or concepts that govern it. State those principles clearly.
-Then use them as a foundation to answer the specific question.
-
-Question: [your question]
-```
-
-## Complete Examples
-
-### Example 1: Technical Decision
-
-**Before Step-Back:**
-"Should I use PostgreSQL or MongoDB for a social feed application?"
-
-**After Step-Back:**
-```
-ORIGINAL QUESTION:
-Should I use PostgreSQL or MongoDB for a social feed application?
-
-STEP-BACK:
-Before answering, first answer: What are the core principles that govern
-database selection for applications requiring feed-style queries, social graphs,
-and high read throughput? Consider data model fit, query patterns, and
-consistency requirements.
-
-PRINCIPLE APPLICATION:
-Using those principles, now evaluate: should I use PostgreSQL or MongoDB
-for a social feed application where users follow other users, see a ranked
-feed of posts, and can like/comment?
-```
-
-### Example 2: Debugging
-
-**Before Step-Back:**
-"Why does my async function return undefined when I call it?"
-
-**After Step-Back:**
-```
-ORIGINAL QUESTION:
-Why does my async function return undefined when I call it?
-
-STEP-BACK:
-First explain: What are the core principles of how JavaScript async/await
-works, specifically regarding what an async function returns and how callers
-must handle it?
-
-PRINCIPLE APPLICATION:
-Using those principles, diagnose this specific issue: [paste code].
-Why does this return undefined, and what is the fix?
-```
-
-### Example 3: Architecture Review
-
-**Before Step-Back:**
-"Is our current authentication flow secure?"
-
-**After Step-Back:**
-```
-ORIGINAL QUESTION:
-Is our current authentication flow secure?
-
-STEP-BACK:
-Before reviewing our specific implementation, first outline: What are the
-fundamental security principles and threat models that a well-designed
-authentication flow must address? Include: credential handling, session
-management, token security, and common attack vectors.
-
-PRINCIPLE APPLICATION:
-Using those security principles as a checklist, review our authentication
-flow below and identify any gaps or vulnerabilities.
-[Paste authentication flow]
-```
-
-### Example 4: Content/Writing
-
-**Before Step-Back:**
-"Write an introduction for my article about climate change and agriculture."
-
-**After Step-Back:**
-```
-ORIGINAL QUESTION:
-Write an introduction for my article about climate change and agriculture.
-
-STEP-BACK:
-First answer: What are the rhetorical principles of an effective article
-introduction? What should it accomplish, and what structural elements
-make introductions work?
-
-PRINCIPLE APPLICATION:
-Using those principles, write an introduction for an article about how
-climate change is disrupting agricultural yield patterns globally.
-Target audience: policy-informed general readers. Goal: create urgency
-without alarmism.
-```
-
-## Best Use Cases
-
-1. **STEM Reasoning**
-   - Physics, chemistry, math problems
-   - Engineering trade-offs
-   - Scientific analysis
-
-2. **Technical Decision-Making**
-   - Architecture and design choices
-   - Technology selection
-   - Security analysis
-
-3. **Historical and Causal Analysis**
-   - Evaluating decisions and their consequences
-   - Understanding complex events
-   - Root cause analysis
-
-4. **Complex Debugging**
-   - When the specific error needs first-principles understanding
-   - Novel or unclear failure modes
-
-5. **Any Task Where Principles Matter More Than Pattern-Matching**
-
-## Selection Criteria
-
-**Choose Step-Back when:**
-- ✅ Task requires principled reasoning, not just recall
-- ✅ Direct answers tend to be shallow or incorrect
-- ✅ Underlying principles are known and applicable
-- ✅ The question is specific but has a generalizable foundation
-- ✅ Errors in past attempts suggest lack of principled grounding
-
-**Avoid Step-Back when:**
-- ❌ Task is straightforward and factual — overhead not worth it → use APE or RTF
-- ❌ Content creation (no abstract principle needed) → use CO-STAR or BAB
-- ❌ Already reasoning step-by-step → CoT may suffice
-- ❌ The principle is unknowable or irrelevant
-
-## Step-Back vs. Chain of Thought
-
-| | Step-Back | Chain of Thought |
-|---|---|---|
-| Direction | Abstract → Specific | Step 1 → Step 2 → ... → Answer |
-| Starting point | Higher-level principle | The problem itself |
-| Best for | Principle-grounded reasoning | Known procedure, sequential steps |
-| Failure mode | Step-back question too vague | Errors compound through chain |
-
-**Rule of thumb:** If the question has a known procedure → CoT. If the question requires first-principles reasoning → Step-Back.
-
-## Generating Good Step-Back Questions
-
-**Pattern:** Remove specifics → ask for the governing rule/principle
-
-| Original (Specific) | Step-Back (Abstract) |
-|---|---|
-| "What happens when thread A and thread B access shared memory?" | "What are the principles of memory consistency in concurrent programming?" |
-| "How should I price my SaaS product?" | "What are the principles of value-based pricing for B2B software?" |
-| "Was this code change the cause of our performance regression?" | "What are the principles for diagnosing performance regressions in production systems?" |
-
-## Quick Reference
-
-| Step | Purpose | Key Question |
-|------|---------|--------------|
-| Step-Back Question | Abstract the problem | "What principle governs this?" |
-| Principle Retrieval | Get the foundation | "What are the rules?" |
-| Final Answer | Apply principles to specifics | "Given these principles, what's the answer?" |
+# Step-Back Prompting
+
+## Overview
+
+Step-Back Prompting is a two-step reasoning technique where the model first answers a higher-level "step-back" question that retrieves the underlying principles, concepts, or facts relevant to the original problem — then uses those retrieved principles as context to answer the original question. By abstracting first, the model grounds its reasoning in first principles rather than diving directly into a potentially error-prone specific answer.
+
+**Research basis:** "Take a Step Back: Evoking Reasoning via Abstraction in Large Language Models" (Zheng et al., Google DeepMind, arXiv:2310.06117, ICLR 2024). Demonstrated +7-27% accuracy on MMLU Physics and Chemistry, +27% on TimeQA, +25% on MuSiQue vs. direct prompting.
+
+## Components
+
+### Step 1: The Step-Back Question
+**Purpose:** Reformulate the original question into a higher-level, more abstract question that retrieves the underlying principles or concepts needed.
+
+**Pattern:** Strip away specifics → ask for the general principle/rule/concept.
+
+**Examples:**
+- Original: "What happens to water pressure at 100m depth in salt water?" → Step-back: "What are the physics principles governing fluid pressure?"
+- Original: "How should I structure a React component that fetches user data?" → Step-back: "What are the principles of separation of concerns in React component design?"
+- Original: "Was the Battle of Stalingrad a turning point?" → Step-back: "What factors define a military turning point in a campaign?"
+
+### Step 2: Principle Retrieval
+**Purpose:** Answer the step-back question to retrieve the relevant principles/concepts/facts. This becomes the reasoning context.
+
+### Step 3: Final Answer
+**Purpose:** Use the retrieved principles as context to answer the original specific question.
+
+**Trigger:** "Based on these principles, now answer the original question: [original question]"
+
+## Template Structure
+
+```
+ORIGINAL QUESTION:
+[The specific question you want answered]
+
+STEP-BACK:
+Before answering directly, first answer this higher-level question:
+[Step-back question — the abstract principle/concept behind the original]
+
+PRINCIPLE APPLICATION:
+Using the principles/concepts you just described, now answer the original question:
+[Restate original question]
+```
+
+### Auto Step-Back (Model generates its own step-back question):
+```
+Before answering the following question, first identify the underlying
+principles or concepts that govern it. State those principles clearly.
+Then use them as a foundation to answer the specific question.
+
+Question: [your question]
+```
+
+## Complete Examples
+
+### Example 1: Technical Decision
+
+**Before Step-Back:**
+"Should I use PostgreSQL or MongoDB for a social feed application?"
+
+**After Step-Back:**
+```
+ORIGINAL QUESTION:
+Should I use PostgreSQL or MongoDB for a social feed application?
+
+STEP-BACK:
+Before answering, first answer: What are the core principles that govern
+database selection for applications requiring feed-style queries, social graphs,
+and high read throughput? Consider data model fit, query patterns, and
+consistency requirements.
+
+PRINCIPLE APPLICATION:
+Using those principles, now evaluate: should I use PostgreSQL or MongoDB
+for a social feed application where users follow other users, see a ranked
+feed of posts, and can like/comment?
+```
+
+### Example 2: Debugging
+
+**Before Step-Back:**
+"Why does my async function return undefined when I call it?"
+
+**After Step-Back:**
+```
+ORIGINAL QUESTION:
+Why does my async function return undefined when I call it?
+
+STEP-BACK:
+First explain: What are the core principles of how JavaScript async/await
+works, specifically regarding what an async function returns and how callers
+must handle it?
+
+PRINCIPLE APPLICATION:
+Using those principles, diagnose this specific issue: [paste code].
+Why does this return undefined, and what is the fix?
+```
+
+### Example 3: Architecture Review
+
+**Before Step-Back:**
+"Is our current authentication flow secure?"
+
+**After Step-Back:**
+```
+ORIGINAL QUESTION:
+Is our current authentication flow secure?
+
+STEP-BACK:
+Before reviewing our specific implementation, first outline: What are the
+fundamental security principles and threat models that a well-designed
+authentication flow must address? Include: credential handling, session
+management, token security, and common attack vectors.
+
+PRINCIPLE APPLICATION:
+Using those security principles as a checklist, review our authentication
+flow below and identify any gaps or vulnerabilities.
+[Paste authentication flow]
+```
+
+### Example 4: Content/Writing
+
+**Before Step-Back:**
+"Write an introduction for my article about climate change and agriculture."
+
+**After Step-Back:**
+```
+ORIGINAL QUESTION:
+Write an introduction for my article about climate change and agriculture.
+
+STEP-BACK:
+First answer: What are the rhetorical principles of an effective article
+introduction? What should it accomplish, and what structural elements
+make introductions work?
+
+PRINCIPLE APPLICATION:
+Using those principles, write an introduction for an article about how
+climate change is disrupting agricultural yield patterns globally.
+Target audience: policy-informed general readers. Goal: create urgency
+without alarmism.
+```
+
+## Best Use Cases
+
+1. **STEM Reasoning**
+   - Physics, chemistry, math problems
+   - Engineering trade-offs
+   - Scientific analysis
+
+2. **Technical Decision-Making**
+   - Architecture and design choices
+   - Technology selection
+   - Security analysis
+
+3. **Historical and Causal Analysis**
+   - Evaluating decisions and their consequences
+   - Understanding complex events
+   - Root cause analysis
+
+4. **Complex Debugging**
+   - When the specific error needs first-principles understanding
+   - Novel or unclear failure modes
+
+5. **Any Task Where Principles Matter More Than Pattern-Matching**
+
+## Selection Criteria
+
+**Choose Step-Back when:**
+- ✅ Task requires principled reasoning, not just recall
+- ✅ Direct answers tend to be shallow or incorrect
+- ✅ Underlying principles are known and applicable
+- ✅ The question is specific but has a generalizable foundation
+- ✅ Errors in past attempts suggest lack of principled grounding
+
+**Avoid Step-Back when:**
+- ❌ Task is straightforward and factual — overhead not worth it → use APE or RTF
+- ❌ Content creation (no abstract principle needed) → use CO-STAR or BAB
+- ❌ Already reasoning step-by-step → CoT may suffice
+- ❌ The principle is unknowable or irrelevant
+
+## Step-Back vs. Chain of Thought
+
+| | Step-Back | Chain of Thought |
+|---|---|---|
+| Direction | Abstract → Specific | Step 1 → Step 2 → ... → Answer |
+| Starting point | Higher-level principle | The problem itself |
+| Best for | Principle-grounded reasoning | Known procedure, sequential steps |
+| Failure mode | Step-back question too vague | Errors compound through chain |
+
+**Rule of thumb:** If the question has a known procedure → CoT. If the question requires first-principles reasoning → Step-Back.
+
+## Generating Good Step-Back Questions
+
+**Pattern:** Remove specifics → ask for the governing rule/principle
+
+| Original (Specific) | Step-Back (Abstract) |
+|---|---|
+| "What happens when thread A and thread B access shared memory?" | "What are the principles of memory consistency in concurrent programming?" |
+| "How should I price my SaaS product?" | "What are the principles of value-based pricing for B2B software?" |
+| "Was this code change the cause of our performance regression?" | "What are the principles for diagnosing performance regressions in production systems?" |
+
+## Quick Reference
+
+| Step | Purpose | Key Question |
+|------|---------|--------------|
+| Step-Back Question | Abstract the problem | "What principle governs this?" |
+| Principle Retrieval | Get the foundation | "What are the rules?" |
+| Final Answer | Apply principles to specifics | "Given these principles, what's the answer?" |